g.

I’ve been on an Orson Scott Card binge this holiday.  I’ve read The Lost Gate (his newest book), Ender’s Game (his most famous book), and Ender in Exile (sequel to his famous book).  The Lost Gate is alright… It seems more suitable for young adults or even children.   However. Ender’s Game.  Wow.  No wonder it’s his most popular and why it shot him up in the world of sci-fi and fame.  I never really enjoyed science fiction, but I’m now eager to find more books like this one.  Yes, it’s supposedly for young adults, but I think that it’ll mean different things to older readers.  On the surface, it’s about child geniuses and a world that has come to such urgency that it trains promising, untainted children in the art of war.  But I think that it also has subtle messages about psychology, morality, innocence vs. ignorance, even religion, that it can’t merely be categorized as a children’s book.  (Plus, it’s kind of long.)  There’s a reason why it’s included in the syllabi of university courses throughout the world. I highly recommend this book.  If anyone has similar sci-fi recommendations to make to me, let me know! //edit: I just looked at several lists of “Best Science Fiction Books,” and A Wrinkle in Time, 1984, Brave New World, and The Giver are consistently within the top 10.  So maybe I’ve been more of a sci-fi person my whole life than I thought I was.  Well then.

I’ve been on an Orson Scott Card binge this holiday.  I’ve read The Lost Gate (his newest book), Ender’s Game (his most famous book), and Ender in Exile (sequel to his famous book).  The Lost Gate is alright… It seems more suitable for young adults or even children.  

However.

Ender’s Game.  Wow.  No wonder it’s his most popular and why it shot him up in the world of sci-fi and fame.  I never really enjoyed science fiction, but I’m now eager to find more books like this one.  Yes, it’s supposedly for young adults, but I think that it’ll mean different things to older readers.  On the surface, it’s about child geniuses and a world that has come to such urgency that it trains promising, untainted children in the art of war.  But I think that it also has subtle messages about psychology, morality, innocence vs. ignorance, even religion, that it can’t merely be categorized as a children’s book.  (Plus, it’s kind of long.)  There’s a reason why it’s included in the syllabi of university courses throughout the world.

I highly recommend this book.  If anyone has similar sci-fi recommendations to make to me, let me know!

//edit: I just looked at several lists of “Best Science Fiction Books,” and A Wrinkle in Time, 1984, Brave New World, and The Giver are consistently within the top 10.  So maybe I’ve been more of a sci-fi person my whole life than I thought I was.  Well then.